Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Rome's Rant/Review: Destiny Ninja

Whattup Krome Fam!!

I'm not wasting ANY time at all with this - this game is one that I have HOT and CHILLY feelings for so this will not only be a rant, but also a review. Allow me to explain.

The "Shall We Date" series of Otome games are kind of great. I am well familiar with two games in that series - this is one of them: "Shall we date: Destiny Ninja". I've run through this game with one character, the only character that really drew me in to be honest, but I've also done all but one or two of his side stories.

The Gist: A girl (us) loses her memory in the middle of a war! Who's side is she on? No one knows, not even her (on account of no memory). She is found by a ninja (of your choice) and he is assigned to be her guardian. Along the way cray cray things happen with the war, but cray cray events also take place between the main (us) &our ninja.
'Cray' level varies by Ninja picked.

The Main: This girl has lost her memory. She is kinda injured and alone and afraid, and I get it. Very scary. I didn't like her. (Maybe it's because I was fooling around with another game who's female character I adored!) On Mizuki's file - she plays the kind of Main I hate am not too fond of. I'm currently on Enya's file and his personality is RADICALLY different from Mizuki's - and the Main is much better. We will see how this progresses.

Boys, Boys, Boys: There are 10 guys to chose from. The men in this game are NINJA. I'm not a huge ninja person. And that was one big reason I didn't want to bother with this game, but after all the hype I read, I figured I'd try it and could always uninstall it. Funny enough, I picked the most 'ninja' looking of them all - Mizuki. His eyes (one yellow, one green) pulled me in.
After seeing "Enya" as the favorite Ninja for a looooong time, I figured I'd play his file to see what all the buzz was about. I'm glad I tried him out! Haha, he is a riot and I'm enjoying how The Main is with him. The next fan favorite seems to be Goyo. These two guys, Enya and Goyo, do not feature much in Mizuki's file and so I didn't get a feel for their characters, but after some digging, I may try Goyo out as well. Goyo featured in "the Handsome Beast" spin-off story of Mizuki's and he seemed like a riot, so much fun.

Gameplay: This is one of those 'wait 4hrs for 1 energy/power' type games (power is rejuvenated with Rice Cakes). It has login in prizes, as well as an invitation code prize you NEED (KQvateVnAa). The ninja have 'pets'/partners and you have to kinda dress the pets... which was awkward. 'Tokens' are the game currency. Save these until something comes up. Make (and 'interact' with) "friends" to achieve TASK PRIZES - this also helps get you more tokens. You also get letters from your protector throughout certain times of the games. These are super cute... even when they are scolding you.

Romance: The Romance Bar is called "Love State." I adore that there is no right or wrong answer perse in this game. Like I said in the Intro Post on Otome games - go in with a strategy. I mean, go in knowing what ending you want to achieve - that will guide your choices. OR you can always free ball it, pick what you want, and see where that road takes you!

This game has THREE kinds of endings for each position on your love state bar: Honey (lover dovey), Sweet, and Green (or neutral). You are given two choices when decision time comes. Each choice will either move you in the sweet, or the 'lover dovey' direction.

Rant: My first time around the story line was OK. What kept me was all the freebies (who doesn't like meaningless virtual freebies?!?), and the Romance plot line. But even with the Romance plot line, I just wanted to see how Mizuki would get out of his shell and what not. With Enya's file, so far so good! He is a hoot and is drastically different from the aloof, watch you in the shadows Mizuki. Enya is in your face with his personality which draws out a side of The Main I'm able to stomach. I really like Mizuki, I just think he got the short end of the stick story wise. They could do a lot more with him *shrug* but at least Enya is entertaining!Playability: I don't know. I've gone through almost all of Mizuki's story lines and if I hadn't cracked and checked Enya out, I woulda uninstalled the game. Perhaps I'll test out some of the others, maybe; If they don't hold back on those rice cakes!!

HOT: The gameplay. This games leave you wanting for nothing! Rice cakes are free flowing, tokens are free flowing, and it was just a nice chill game. I'm a fan of the 4hr power deal too. This way, I can interact with the game throughout the day, not just once like the other times that give you new energy only ONCE a day.

I adore the no consequence choices/romance. You can chose whatever and you move towards an ending. I followed a guide on Mizuki's file, but on Enya's... not so much! With his file I'm just free ballin' it and seeing where that road takes me and I love the carefreeness that gives me. I enjoy the game more in my opinion.

The letters! The letters are such a great touch! Waaay to make it a little more personalized. That part of the game makes me smile -it's super cute.

COLD: The story itself is a little lackluster. Yes, some thangs happen but for the most part blah blah blah. I didn't find myself caring about peace or defeating the faceless villain. Even the one 'bad guy' that we meet isn't all that bad! He's kinda sweet. (You can now play his file!). So, I just found myself wanting to skip dialogue that wasn't with my Ninja (Mizuki) to move things along, and would sign into the game out of duty (finish what you start) and to find out what Mizuki's past was all about.

The partners... what gives! These are ok IN THE STORY, but outside of the story? Come on! You have to buy clothing for them because you need high relationship with them to move past certain checkpoints. That portion of the game doesn't add to anything. Feels more like busy work really. No thank you.

Who's your favorite ninja? You lost in the game? Comment below and/or hit me up on twitter (www.twitter.com/kromeradio)!